Introduction

The Fusion system in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is unique in the Persona series. Players have to gather special items called spell cards from demons through maximizing their Eagerness, then use such cards as the ingredient of fusion. Hence, having a spell card from Jack Frost does not allow you to use Jack Frost as a Persona, you will need to fuse it separately.

This section explains the basic fusion theory, then it will further explain other sub-systems such as fusion accidents, hidden potentials, and item- or totem-related fusions.

Fundamental

Tribe and Order

An understanding of the difference between Tribes and Orders is required for successful fusions. In Persona, on top of the Order system, there is also a Tribe system that has been traditionally used in the Shin Megami Tensei series. There are totally 19 Tribes:

JPN

ENG

Type

Characteristics

夜魔

Night

Dark

Has Energy Drain and is good at Dark spells

妖魔

Yoma

Element

Good at Element spells and special spells

妖精

Fairy

Element

Has a variety of spells

天使

Divine

Holy

Good at Holy - Kouha; Force - Megido

堕天使

Fallen

Dark

Good at Dark - Eiha; special Force attacks

龍王

Snake

Holy

Has high HP and is good at special spells

邪龍

Drake

Force

Has high HP and is good at breath attacks

妖鳥

Flight

Element

Good at Element - Wind

凶鳥

Raptor

Force

Good at Force - Blast

魔獣

Beast

Holy

Good at Holy - Prayer; Force - Special skills

妖獣

Wilder

Dark

Good at Rush-subtype special attacks

鬼女

Femme

Force

High St; good at Force-subtype spells

妖鬼

Brute

Holy

Good at Holy - Hama; Special spell attacks

地霊

Jirae

Element

High Vi; good at Element - Earth

邪鬼

Jaki

Element

High Dx; good at special spells; special Force attacks

幽鬼

Haunt

Dark

Almost all attacks are special spell attacks

悪霊

Spirit

Dark

Good at Dark - Death, Mudo

屍鬼

Grave

Force

Mainly uses claw attacks; nulls Guns

外道

Foul

Force

Has no spell attacks

In addition, there are a total of 22 Orders in the Major Arcana:

Order

Type

Characteristics

MAGICIAN

Element

Good at all Element-type spells

PRIESTESS

Light

Good at healing subtypes, such as Bless and Miracle spells

EMPRESS

Force

Good at Force - Nuclear, Frei

EMPEROR

Element

Can use both Curse and Nerve spells, as well as Element

HIEROPHANT

Light

Good at Light - Expel

LOVERS

Element

Good at Element spells and dances

CHARIOT

Force

Come at Force - Normal, Special, Nuclear

STRENGTH

Light

Good at special spell attacks

HERMIT

Element

Good at special Force attacks

FORTUNE

Light

Good at the Rush subtype of physical skills

JUSTICE

Force

Good at Force spells

HANGEDMAN

Dark

Good at status-affecting attacks

DEATH

Dark

Good at Dark - Death, Eiha

TEMPERANCE

Force

Good at special spell attacks

DEVIL

Dark

Good at Dark spells

TOWER

Dark

Good at Dark - Death, Mudo

STAR

Elemental

Can use a variety of Element spells

MOON

Dark

Good at Dark - Nerve

SUN

Element

Good at Element - Wind

JUDGEMENT

Light

Good at Holy - Expel, Kouha

WORLD

Force

Good at breath attacks

FOOL

Force

Can use a variety of attacking methods

The resulting Persona is always expressed in the Order system, but the ingredients that give such result are always expressed in the Tribe system. So, you will see recipe like:

Tribe A X Tribe B = A certain Order

You can only fuse two demons in Persona. However, you can interfere with the outcome by changing the sequence of the demons, applying items, or synchronizing your fusion with the Moon Phases.

Level of the resulting Persona

To determine the Level of the Persona:

First determine the Order of the resultant.

Take the average of the two demons, truncate.

Add 3 to the answer.

The resulting Persona will be the first one that has a Level bigger than your answer.

How to read the icons

Color

Meaning

White

Normal: Nothing special

Orange

Unstable: Higher chance for fusion accident

Blue

Beneficial: Result Persona have +5 to its highest stat, and +20 to Magic Def

Sign

Meaning

○

Normal Fusion: No skill inheritance

→

1st Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 1st demon entering the recipe, according to the priority

↑

Beneficial 2nd Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 2nd demon entering the recipe, according to the priority; all stats +1

↓

Unfavorable 2nd Dominant: Skill will be inherited from the 2nd demon entering the recipe, according to the priority; all stats -1

Why was I denied making or equipping a certain Persona?

You may not carry two identical Personas. If you need to fuse a new one, you will have to return the existing one.

You may not fuse Personas 10 Levels higher than the MC's Persona LV.

A Persona cannot be equipped by a character if their affinity is the worst.

A Persona cannot be equipped by a character if the character's Persona LV is lower than that of the Persona's.

What is the combination of Tribes that gives you a FOOL Persona?

There isn't one. FOOL Personas can only be made through fusion accidents.

Skill Inheritance

There are two ways to let your resultant Persona learn a skill that is not in their default skill list: inheriting from the parent demon or learning from a spell tablet. Inherited skills will be available for using after the resultant Persona has reached Rank 2.

Some demons contribute one to three inheritable skills during a fusion. According to their position in the fusion and the sign of the fusion, the resultant Persona will pick up a skill according to the default priority.

A more fool-proof (no pun intended) way to insert a skill into the skill list is by throwing in a tablet. Low- to medium-level offensive tablets can be found in dungeon and obtained as loot after battles, top-tier offensive tablets are available in casino, recovery tablets are readily available in pharmacy. Most Personas also rewarded you a tablet upon being returned.

For those who are into save/load or gambling, you may also throw in an item that imparts a "random effect" to the fusion. There is a slim chance that the random effect will turn out to be a skill transference.

The skill inheritance follows these rules:

Only one skill will be inherited. Skill from tablets has priority compared to skill from the demons.

When ranking up to 2, the inherited skill will be learned.

If the resultant Persona already has the skill by default, that inherited skill will not be learned. If the donor parent actually has more than one spell, then the second inheritable skill will be the result.

The property of the resultant Persona may cause an inheritance to fail. For instance, Jack Frost and other ice-based Personas will not inherit Maragion, even if a Maragion Stone is used in the Fusion, etc.

Hidden Potentials

By fusing some particular Tribes at a certain Moon Phase, the resulting Persona may also acquire a hidden skill known as a "hidden potential" (潜在能力). A few conditions need to be fulfilled for the hidden potential to take effect:

The Persona has to be active, i.e. the one being equipped at the first position.

The Persona needs to be at least Rank 6.

The character and the Persona have the Best affinity.

If all of the above are true, then when the character's HP has dropped to red, their hidden potentials may happen based on a chance. The exception is the Latent Revival, which requires the character to die in order to be activated. There are numerous types of hidden potentials, listed below are the most efficient ones. Each Persona can only have one hidden potential:

Latent Recovery

Moon Phase: FULL MOON.

Condition: Use Drake, Raptor, Wilder, Jaki, Haunt, Spirit, Grave, or Foul in the 2nd position of a Fusion.

Effect: 25% chance of reviving character with full HP. Persona returns to Rank 1.

Latent Nullification

Moon Phase: NEW MOON.

Condition: Use Snake, Flight, Beast, Femme, Brute, or Jirae in the 2nd position of a Fusion.

OR

Moon Phase: HALF MOON.

Condition: Use Wilder in the 2nd position of a Fusion.

Effect: Nullify all attacks when HP drops to red.

Latent Revival

Moon Phase: NEW MOON.

Condition: Use Drake, Raptor, Wilder, Jaki, Haunt, Spirit, Grave, or Foul in the 2nd position of a Fusion.

Effect: 25% chance of reviving character with full HP. Persona returns to Rank 1.

This Latent Revival ability can be abused to create a Persona with maximum status; although the Persona's Rank returns to 1 and all its skills have to be relearned, the stats it had gained are retained. So, by doing it multiple times, it can keep gaining stats.

Notice that only part of the Persona gain points in all seven stats. For instance, if a Persona's growth pattern only allows it to gain St, Dx, and Ag. No matter how many times you trigger the revival, it will not gain points in Vi, Lu, Magic Atk, and Magic Def.

One major drawback is that the reborn Persona will not rank up in the same battle during which it was killed. So, it can cause a big problem in boss fights, because you will only be able to use the one default skill (or you will have spend a turn to switch Persona).

Latent Attack

Note: This hidden potential is given by default and cannot be replaced. So, it is pointless to design a fusion attempting to let the above Persona inherit other hidden potentials.

Fusion Accidents

At a certain chance, the fusion may not return what was promised known as a "fusion accident" (合体事故). Igor, the host of the Velvet Room, will tell you when something irregular has happened. A quick way to tell if an accident has occurred is by pressing the Start button while the tent is being lowered onto the two demons; if you cannot bypass that scene, then the irregular event has happened. The chance of a fusion accident depends on the accident types:

Accident

Effect

White Fusion

Orange Fusion

Blue Fusion

Order Switch

See below

8/256

8/256

2/256

FOOL

Result becomes a FOOL Persona

1/256

4/256

2/256

Jelly man

All Stats -5

7/256

32/256

0

Upgrade

All Stats +5

8/256

0

8/256

Random inheritance

Persona will randomly inherit a favorable spell from its parents

8/256

20/256

4/256

Result of Order Switch

Chance

HERMIT, SUN, WORLD, LOVERS, TEMPERANCE, MOON

32/256

MAGICIAN, EMPEROR, JUSTICE, EMPRESS

10/256

PRIESTESS, HIEROPHANT, JUDGEMENT, CHARIOT

6/256

FOOL Creation

FOOL Personas can only be created through a fusion accident. There are three of them; all are characterized by colorful skill sets, low SP requirements, "Strong: All attacks" properties. They are worth making.

LV

Persona

Ingredients

30

FOOL Tenjiku Tokubei

Total demon LV < 53

47

FOOL Narukami

Total demon LV between 54 and 87

61

FOOL Kamakura Gongorou

Total demon LV > 87

Notice that even when the resultant Persona has changed, planned hidden potentials or spell inheritance will still happen. This rule applies to Order mutations as well. With some (or a lot) luck, you may be able to create a Persona that inherited an unique skill.

Cheat

A cheat is available for the PSP version. By counting the steps between the Agastya Tree and the Velvet Room, a fusion accident can actually be arranged with 100% certainty. The details are listed on the cheat page.